Tag Archive for VSA

So I took my exam today and passed with a reasonably respectable score of 428 (pass mark for VCP-510 is 300/500). So how was it?

The exam itself was reasonable, and not massively dissimilar to the VCP 4 in terms of difficulty and question style. The content was all pulled pretty much directly from the exam blueprint, so if you are confident you know the blueprint, then you should be ok with the exam. I would also STRONGLY suggest you take the official mock VCP-510 exam once you feel you are prepared enough, as it will give you a really good feel for the exam and if you pass it comfortably, you will almost certainly do fine in the real one.

The exam has a total of 85 questions to complete in 90 minutes, which sounds tight, but when some of the simpler questions have very short (e.g. 1 word) answers, you can get through those in just seconds, giving you more time to complete the more tricky ones. Just don’t panic about time, or even bother looking at the clock until you’re at least 60 questions into it. I completed mine in about an hour.

I used Scott Lowe’s Mastering VMware vSphere 5 as my main study aid, followed by building several test environments (thanks to the vSphere 60 day evaluation) and doing loads of practice questions etc. I would highlight the fact that his book does not cover much about the extras which are likely to come up, such as the VSA, vDR and even a basic knowledge of other VMware products (Workstation, Server, View etc). I would suggest a little time is dedicated to understanding the basic capabilities of these products too (perhaps a little unfair as the exam is on vSphere but hey?!).

For more info on the exam prep materials I used please see my previous blog post:VCP5 Exam Prep Guide

So its that time of year again, when we VCPs have to bone up on the latest developments in the VCP world and get our exam done in time before we have to go cap in hand to our line management asking for them to pay for a course we never needed in the first place. In order to avoid this embarrassment, VMware kindly give us the opportunity (as existing VCPs) to pass the VCP-510 exam by 29th Feb 2012, bypassing the course attendance requirement (fair enough!).

As per usual, I have left this pretty much until as late as I feasibly can while still giving time for the (hopefully never required as yet) resit, meaning I am booked in to sit my exam on 1st Feb.

For the sake of others who are also planning to take this exam, I plan to post the links to all of my study aids below, along with any other hints/tips I come across for studying towards the VCP5 exam. If it only helps out one or two people it’ll be worth the effort.

One point worth highlighting is that reading books is all very well and good, but there’s no substitute for actually “doing it”. The best thing I would suggest is to create a home lab and use the vSphere 60 day evaluation to have a play with all the latest features. I have accomplished this in a couple of ways, but I found the most flexible to be running 2 x ESXi hosts and a copy of FreeNAS 7 inside VMware Workstation 8 (using NFS or iSCSI). I’ll try to create a post on this when I have time, but do a quick search on google for lots of other people with similar setups.

This should be considered a “living list” for now, and I will endeavour to update it as I find/use further resources.

Mastering VMware vSphere 5 by Scott Lowe (Kindle Edition)
A superb resource. Even though I am already VCP3 and 4 certified, it is still worth a full read, in part as a refresher, and in part because it does highlight many of the updates with vSphere. Kindle edition is also cheaper, and lets be honest, as vSphere 5 will be out of date in another couple of years, do you really need 2 kgs of dead tree choking up your bookshelf, when you could just have an electronic copy, which you can share across all your devices?
I have spent an hour or two a night reading and taking notes from this for a couple of weeks, which is a lot less painful than trying to get through it in one go, and hopefully should ensure slightly better retention!

VMware vSphere 5 Clustering Technical Deepdive by Duncan Epping and Frank Denneman (Kindle Edition)
Having read the vSphere 4 version of this (first Kindle book I ever bought) in prep for my VCAP-DCD 4 (still to sit), I can confirm Duncan and Frank are very capable teachers! An excellent resource which goes above and beyond the VCP requirements, but will give you a much more in depth understanding of HA, DRS, DPM, SDRS, etc. This will be invaluable when the VCAP exams are out for vSphere 5!

vSphere Storage Appliance
Official VMware blog post with documentation links for VSA stuff. Not covered in Scott Lowe’s Mastering Vsphere 5, but you will almost certainly be asked some questions on VSA in the exam.

Official VMware Mock VCP510 ExamAn excellent resource, especially if you have never taken a VCP exam before. HINT: If you can pass this, you’re probably good to go for the real exam.

VCP5 Practice Questions by Paul McSharry
A great set of practice questions being regularly updated with extra questions… I actually met Paul when he taught my VMware vSphere Design [4.x] workshop. A very knowledgeable guy, and his website (www.elasticsky.co.uk) is well worth checking out and subscribing.

VCP Practice Exams by Simon Long
A boat-load of questions here coving general knowledge and config maximums per feature.

Please feel free to send me any links to practice questions and I’ll vet them and add them to the above list.